What we become
by Bridge Over The Creek
Summary: Ruby is faced with the moral dilemma of killing a man who poses a potential threat to the safety of her, Weiss, and the rest of their ragtag group of survivors. Oneshot, Post-Apocalypse AU. Rated T for some language.


Ruby's hand trembled. Her fingers were cramped and slick with a mixture of blood, sweat and rain, and her side burned from the punch she'd absorbed.

Perhaps she could have seen it coming. She wish she had. Maybe then she could have avoided this situation. The pattering of rain drops on cracked cement at rapid speed mixed into a roar that wasn't unlike her own thoughts.

The smell of fire and gasoline was like a pungent odour on the air, and the need to be faster was growing ever more important. She had to save Weiss.

She grit her teeth and winced as a new wave of brutal pain rocked through her. Likely, ribs were cracked. She fell to her knee, her torn jeans soaked. Her kneecap was bare and as result she gained a new, unnoticed scrape from the broken mixture of debris and gravel beneath her. The man reacted to her and jumped slightly, reaching for his dropped knife.

Ruby pointed in the direction of his outreaching hand and pulled on the trigger so hard that the handgun almost slipped out of her hands. The man cursed loudly and withdrew his hand back to his side.

Ruby could let him go. That was an option. She hadn't killed anyone, not yet, and she could possibly go on that way. What that could mean for them as a group, however... A hot tear of rage and frustration rolled down her bruised and battered cheek, stinging the open cuts and scrapes.

Her small group of Yang, Blake and Weiss, along with Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora and a few other stragglers had been passing through a small, unnamed town, which they assumed had been vacant. They'd assumed wrong, and had paid for their need for things like shelter and food. A group of _savages_ had jumped them from the shadowed alleys of the close built town and subdued them with hardly any effort.

Ruby shuddered at how close their fate had been, and how glad she was that Yang had managed to procure a set of keys in order to get out. How she'd managed Ruby didn't know; they'd all been kept in separate areas. She did know that they were still somehow missing Nora, and that terrified her.

Regardless, they were out of the range of that hellish nightmare now. They would have to come back later.

They'd been escaping through the sewer system in a dead run, the cannibals hard on their heels. It had taken every ounce of their strength to push through the grate and slam it closed behind them. They hadn't stopped there, but Ruby had noticed one thing that made her freeze in her steps; Weiss wasn't with them.

She'd shouted to Yang what the issue was, and Yang had shouted back at her to leave it. Ruby had ran off without another word, back in the direction of the one person she couldn't leave behind, even if her sister demanded it. Yang hadn't given chase, and for that, Ruby was thankful.

What she'd found when she arrived at the sewer entrance was harrowing. Weiss, slipping out of the open grate, cursing and crying out for help. From the moonlight alone Ruby could see the shine of her tears, and the terror in her eyes. "H-Help me! Someone, he-" Her voice died in her throat as a sickening crack resounded through the night, and the butt of a hunting rifle slammed into the back of her head. She slumped over like a ragdoll in a pool of water.

"Stupid..." A male voice growled, stepping out from behind the grate. He grabbed Weiss by the hair and hauled her back up to her feet, where she stood on trembling legs, her soft crying renting the night and tearing holes in Ruby's heart. Terror seeped from her, and she had her handgun already pointed at the gunman.

"Come on, you fucking twat. Keep your mouth shut." He growled, pushing her forward. She stumbled with a cry and fell again, and the man wasted no time in hauling her back up. Ruby was so cold, so scared, that from her spot behind a mangled guardrail, she almost launched herself over it to save Weiss.

But she couldn't. Not yet, not until her was closer.

Weiss whimpered as he shoved her towards Ruby's direction, unknowingly. She stumbled, but didn't fall. "After them." He said, and a louder, pleading cry escaped her lips.

"P-please, just l-leave them alone!" She begged, her subdued. The man pushed her forward with the butt of his gun, which slammed hard into the spot between her shoulders. Weiss let out a yelp and started forward. Her hair, usually silvery in color, was dark and damp, and spattered with blood that looked like nothing but a darker shade of black in the poor lighting. Her face was hidden from view.

Ruby's legs tensed as the pair got closer.

"You idiots brought this on yourself. Should have read the sign." The man laughed cruelly, and Weiss said or did nothing but keep walking forward.

 _Just... Just a few more steps, Weiss..._ Ruby thought, tasting the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.

Weiss shuffled past her. The man followed, unaware of the slowly rising form behind him.

It was his stupid fault for not checking his surroundings.

Ruby's handgun connected like lightning right above his ear, missing his temple by a margin. He shouted and pushed against Ruby unseeingly, who grabbed onto his arm with one hand and struck again, in the same spot. She was horrified by the crunch and squelching sound as she broke through skin and bone.

Weiss shouted and dropped flat to her belly, even as the man dropped down beside her. Ruby stood shaking all over and drawing deep breaths, clutching the barrel of her gun and wielding it like a club. For a moment she stared at her handiwork, stunned. She'd knocked people unconscious before.

But she'd never killed before, and she wasn't certain if she'd done so now.

"W-who..." Her voice was so small that Ruby hardly heard it over the rain. She dodged around the still body, forgetting it for the moment, to crouch down beside Weiss.

"Weiss, Weiss, it's me, Ruby, calm down!" She whispered, laying a firm hand on Weiss' shoulder. The other girl immediately started to cry. "Come on, we need to-" Ruby's words stuck in her throat as the body stirred.

The man was alive, and well awake.

Ruby dove at him, landing in a pounce on his chest with a cry. He grunted, and from the corner of her eye, Ruby caught the flash of steel.

Only reflexes, and a good portion of luck, saved her. Ruby sprung away and landed on her butt even as the man made to get up. Ruby searched with her hand urgently, grasped something hard that dug into the skin of her fingers, and chucked it as hard as she could. The stony object connected with the man's face, and he fell back down with a curse.

Ruby scrambled for him, grabbed his wrist and wrestled the knife from his grip.

A few moments later and they were in their current position, Ruby with her gun trained on the man's face.

A man's face. Behind her, Weiss' concern reached her in the form of broken sobs. She was saying something, but it was lost in the pounding of the rain.

"C'mon, kid. Don't shoot. You just… Just let me go, and we can all forget about this." He said calmly, and Ruby inched closer, tightening her finger on the trigger once again. "Woah, woah. Come on, you don't wanna do this… There's been enough fucking blood spillin', don't you think?"

Ruby didn't want to do it. It went against every fiber of her being. The question, however, wasn't whether she wanted to do it, but whether she should.

"Just… Lower the gun, I'll leave mine, and we can walk away. No one will follow you, you kids are good to go. Just take up and leave." He continued, and Ruby, believing him, slowly lowered her gun, taking a step back. The man raised has hands up behind his head and slowly stood. "See?" He said, and Ruby could see his teeth as he smiled.

Behind her, Ruby heard the sounds of Weiss picking herself up off the ground.

"Lovely night…" The man said with a dry chuckle, and Ruby raised her gun a bit.

"Ruby… L-Lets go…" Weiss muttered behind her.

Ruby motioned for him to turn around and start walking.

"Right, lil' missy. You two have a good night, now, you hear?"

Ruby nodded.

And then the world exploded in a flash of bright light and gunpowder.

Weiss' screams rent the night as Ruby pulled her gun up and fired directly for his head, even as he pulled out a small gun of his own and opened fire.

Pain, explosive and breath taking, flared within her gut.

The sounds of gunfire died out in the beat of a heart, and then there was nothing but the sound of rain and Weiss' cries.

Ruby gasped for breath, though every movement of her abdomen shot pain through her unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Stars, red, yellow, white, all danced around her vision. Her hearing grew distant, and she only registered the feel of Weiss' cold hands on her face, slapping her cheeks.

Then she faded out, thinking that if only she'd shot before.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, there was a heavy weight against her chest. She stared up at a wooden ceiling.

The first thing she noticed was that her midsection felt compressed. Memories, bad and unwanted, came flooding back to her like a wave, and she screwed her eyes shut and tried not to imagine bullets tearing through her skin.

She'd likely killed a man, she realized. Somehow she didn't feel nearly as bad as she thought she ought to.

 _Weiss._

Ruby opened her eyes again, and looked down – only to see Weiss curled by her side, one arm laying over her chest in a protective matter.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, her breath escaping like a hiss of hot hair. An unbidden smile grew on her lips, and she felt her muscles relax. They were safe.

As broken as this world was, torn apart by war and strife, pain and hunger, Ruby was glad for the companions she had, and the partnership she had in Weiss.

She closed her eyes, realizing that drugs were coursing through her bloodstream right now.

That was how it should be. This, with Weiss, safe and sound, was how it should be. How it should always be.

* * *

 _ **Hey!**_ **This fic is random, and I don't have much to say about it. I just really felt like writing a quick post-apocalypse scene in a modern AU setting. As you can probably tell, there's no zombies. It's a fic that could be expanded upon with ease, but I have much more important stories to focus on, so I think I'm going to leave this as is and continue on. Hope you enjoyed the read, and as always, I love that criticism!**


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